3353 Jarvis, or by its provisional designation, , is a carbonaceous Hungaria

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...

, slow rotator and suspected tumbler from the inner regions of the

asteroid belt The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, centered on the Sun and roughly spanning the space between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids ...

, approximately 10 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 20 December 1981, by American astronomer

Edward Bowell Edward L. G. "Ted" Bowell (born 1943 in London, died August 21 2023 in Flagstaff, Arizona), was an American astronomer. Bowell was educated at Emanuel School London, University College, London, and the University of Paris. He was principal invest ...

at Lowell's

Anderson Mesa Station Anderson Mesa Station is an astronomical observatory established in 1959 as a dark-sky observing site for Lowell Observatory. It is located at Anderson Mesa in Coconino County, Arizona, about southeast of Lowell's main campus on Mars Hill in F ...

near Flagstaff, Arizona, and named after

Gregory Jarvis Gregory Bruce Jarvis (August 24, 1944 – January 28, 1986) was an American engineer and astronaut who died during the January 28, 1986 destruction of the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' on mission STS-51-L, where he was serving as payload spec ...

, who died in the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster.

Orbit and classification

Jarvis is a member of the

Hungaria family The Hungaria family (003) is a collisional asteroid family of at least 2,966 known asteroids, named for its largest member, the -across asteroid 434 Hungaria. It lies within the larger dynamical group of Hungaria asteroids, a group of asteroids ...

, which form the innermost dense concentration of asteroids in the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...

. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.7–2.0 AU once every 2 years and 6 months (929 days). Its orbit has an

eccentricity Eccentricity or eccentric may refer to: * Eccentricity (behavior), odd behavior on the part of a person, as opposed to being "normal" Mathematics, science and technology Mathematics * Off-Centre (geometry), center, in geometry * Eccentricity (g ...

of 0.08 and an

inclination Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object. For a satellite orbiting the Eart ...

of 22 ° with respect to the

ecliptic The ecliptic or ecliptic plane is the orbital plane of Earth's orbit, Earth around the Sun. It was a central concept in a number of ancient sciences, providing the framework for key measurements in astronomy, astrology and calendar-making. Fr ...

. A first

precovery In astronomy, precovery (short for pre-discovery recovery) is the process of finding the image of a celestial object in images or photographic plates predating its discovery, typically for the purpose of calculating a more accurate orbit. This ha ...

was taken at the

Siding Spring Observatory Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran, New South Wales, Australia, part of the Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics (RSAA) at the Australian National University (ANU), incorporates the Anglo-Australian Telescope along with a coll ...

in 1980, extending the body's

observation arc In observational astronomy, the observation arc (or arc length) of a Solar System body is the time period between its earliest and latest observations, used for tracing the body's path. It is usually given in days or years. The term is mostly use ...

by more than one year prior to its official discovery at Anderson Mesa.

Physical characteristics

Rotation

In July 2007, a rotational

lightcurve In astronomy, a light curve is a graph (discrete mathematics), graph of the Radiance, light intensity of a celestial object or region as a function of time, typically with the magnitude (astronomy), magnitude of light received on the ''y''-axis ...

of Jarvis was obtained from photometric observations by astronomer Brian Warner at his Palmer Divide Station, Colorado, in collaboration with

Robert Stephens Sir Robert Graham Stephens (14 July 193112 November 1995) was an English actor in the early years of Britain's Royal National Theatre. Early life Stephens was born in Shirehampton, Bristol, in 1931, the eldest of three children of shipyard ...

, Alan Harris and

Petr Pravec Petr Pravec (born September 17, 1967) is a Czech astronomer and a discoverer of minor planets, born in Třinec, Czech Republic. Pravec is a prolific discoverer of binary asteroids, expert in photometric observations and rotational lightcurves ...

. The re-examined lightcurve analysis gave a

rotation period In astronomy, the rotation period or spin period of a celestial object (e.g., star, planet, moon, asteroid) has two definitions. The first one corresponds to the '' sidereal rotation period'' (or ''sidereal day''), i.e., the time that the objec ...

of 202 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.50 in

magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...

, superseding the original period solution of 40.8 hours (). Due to an improved long-term calibration of the obtained photometric data points, a much longer period of 202 hours has been derived for Jarvis, which is now among the Top 300 slowest rotators known to exist, as most minor planets have spin rates between 2.2 and 24 hours only. The observations also suggest that Jarvis might be a tumbling asteroid in a non-principal axis rotation, which are typically slow rotators ().

Diameter and albedo

According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite

IRAS The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (Dutch language, Dutch: ''Infrarood Astronomische Satelliet'') (IRAS) was the first space telescope to perform a astronomical survey, survey of the entire night sky at infrared wavelengths. Launched on 25 Janu ...

, the Japanese

Akari AKARI (ASTRO-F) was an infrared astronomy satellite developed by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, in cooperation with institutes of Europe and Korea. It was launched on 21 February 2006, at 21:28 UTC (06:28, 22 February JST) by M-V rocket ...

satellite, and NASA's

Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE, List of observatory codes, observatory code C51, Explorer 92 and MIDEX-6) was a NASA infrared astronomy Space observatory, space telescope in the Explorers Program launched in December 2009.. . WISE L ...

with its subsequent

NEOWISE Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE, observatory code C51, Explorer 92 and MIDEX-6) was a NASA infrared astronomy space telescope in the Explorers Program launched in December 2009.. . WISE discovered thousands of minor planets and nu ...

mission, Jarvis measures between 9.72 and 12.49 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an

albedo Albedo ( ; ) is the fraction of sunlight that is Diffuse reflection, diffusely reflected by a body. It is measured on a scale from 0 (corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation) to 1 (corresponding to a body that reflects ...

between 0.030 and 0.074. The ''Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link'' derives an albedo of 0.0622 and a diameter of 9.70 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 13.7. While most members of the Hungaria family are

E-type asteroid E-type (enstatite achondrite–type) asteroids are asteroids thought to have enstatite (MgSiO3) achondrite surfaces. They form a large proportion of asteroids inward of the asteroid belt known as Hungaria asteroids, but rapidly become very ...

s with extremely bright surfaces and albedos in the order of 0.30, Jarvis has an unusually low albedo, typically seen for

carbonaceous Carbonaceous refers to something relating to, containing, or composed of carbon. It is a descriptor used for the attribute of any substance rich in carbon. Particularly, ''carbonaceous hydrocarbons'' are very unsaturated, high- molecular-weight h ...

asteroids.

Naming

This

minor planet According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''minor ...

was named in memory of

(1944–1986), American astronaut and payload specialist, who died in the

Space Shuttle Challenger disaster On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger, Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard. The spacecraft disintegrated above the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Cape Can ...

on 28 January 1986. The asteroids , , , , , and commemorate the other crew members. The approved naming citation was published by the

Minor Planet Center The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Funct ...

on 26 March 1986 ().

Notes

References

External links

Lightcurve plot of 3353 Jarvis
Palmer Divide Observatory, B. D. Warner (2006)
Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB)
query form

)
Dictionary of Minor Planet Names
Google books

– Observatoire de Genève, Raoul Behrend

– Minor Planet Center * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jarvis 003353 Discoveries by Edward L. G. Bowell Named minor planets 003353 19811220